The First Career
by Blitzk
Summary: After watching the First Hunger Games, Austin Millburn is pushed by his father to train for and volunteer for the Hunger Games, becoming the first person to do so. Learn how the Career system came to be the way it is, beginning with Austin.
1. The First Hunger Games

**A/N: It's probably not very smart to start a third story, but I'm doing it. So now I'll be juggling this among two others. But, I got a good idea and I could hold off writing it any longer. **

**Description: Explores the foundation of the Career system, beginning with the first Career: Austin Millburn. This will be ten chapters.**

My father was always pro-Capitol, even during the war. A lot of District Two citizens were pro-Capitol, but my father was much more active in his support for the government. He actively worked against rebellion movements within District Two even before the war broke out, and he fought on the side of the Capitol when war eventually did begin.

I'm not sure what made him love the Capitol so much. It could've been his cushy job, the number of political friends he had in the Capitol, or my late mother, the love of his life and a citizen of the Capitol. Regardless, he defended the Capitol with every ounce of heart he had.

He was even more thrilled when the Treaty of Treason was signed and the Capitol won. He thought that the districts deserved to be punished, and he wholeheartedly agreed with President Ravel when he decided to begin the Hunger Games, despite the fact that it put me in danger of being "reaped".

The reaping ceremony for the First Hunger Games was scary. I remember standing with all of the other sixteen year olds as Lydia Bell, our district representative, pulled a small piece of paper from a large glass bowl.

"Maribel Para!" she yelled excitedly. Lydia acted as if she was picking lottery winners, the kids in the audience felt like she was giving out death sentences. I only knew Maribel vaguely from school. She was my age, but I never really talked to her. We were just in different social circles.

But regardless, the look on her face saddened me, and I realized that I would probably wear a similar expression if I knew that I had just been selected to die.

I wasn't even paying attention when Lydia drew the next name; I was too focused on Maribel's face.

"Jake Duffield!" she shouted.

The sudden abruptness of which she shocked caused me to jump in fright, and a few people turned to look at me thinking that my reaction meant that I was Wayne Duffield. But fortunately I wasn't.

A large eighteen year old took the stage and Lydia forced him and Maribel to shake hands. Maribel held both of their hands up in the air and yelled at us to congratulate them. We acquiesced, and applauded.

Several of the adults were clapping proudly; they actually felt like it was an honor for the two kids. Of course, none of them were ever in danger of being reaped, so how could they possibly understand the terror all of the kids were feeling? I turned to look at my father in that moment, and it was clear who was clapping the loudest.

No one knew what to expect when we all watched the events unfold on TV in the following weeks. We all watched in curiosity when the tributes were paraded around wearing ridiculous comments, and we listened carefully when Camilla Ravel, the Head Gamemaker and President Ravel's sister, explained how training and evaluations would work. Although there were Sponsors, interviews didn't begin until the Tenth Hunger Games.

Everybody anxiously anticipated the training scores, hoping that our tributes did well and that they would have a better shot at coming home. Maribel scored a six and Jake scored an eight, the highest score that year. Back then, no one was actually prepared for anything the Hunger Games was going to throw. None of the tributes had used weapons before, and many had never seen some of the plants.

The opening of the Hunger Games was actually sort of awkward. People ran to get weapons and supplies but no one was sure if they wanted to be the first one to attack anybody else. All twenty-four tributes had gone into the cornucopia to get weapons and essentially played cat-and-mouse games with each other, waiting for someone to make the first move.

In this time, a few tributes broke the tension and ran into the surrounding environment (plains). Jake, Maribel, the girl from District Six and the male from District Three all ran into the plains.

The first kill of the Hunger Games came when the male tribute from District Four stabbed the male tribute from District Seven in the back with a spear. The two tributes had apparently gotten into a brief skirmish during training and held enmity towards the other.

After the first cannon shot fired and the body of the thirteen year old boy fell to the ground, all hell broke loose. The boy from District Four was immediately attacked by a high strung girl from District Eleven, scared that she would be attacked next since she was closest. She tried to shoot an arrow at him but it missed and struck the girl from District Three in the back of the head. The boy from District Four immediately turned and stabbed her through the stomach with another spear as other fights began to break out.

The female tribute from District Seven and both tributes from District Eight were killed by the male tribute from District Ten, who had acquired a sword and was attacking everyone in sight. He killed the two tributes from District Twelve as well before the boy from District One stabbed in the back with a dagger.

The girl from District Five fell and cut herself on her own knife, injuring her leg so badly that she couldn't move. The female from District One decided to kill her, but was then attacked by the girl's angry district partner. He killed her with a sword, but the District One male took revenge and killed him immediately after.

After all the fights were done, the boy from District One, Jake, Maribel, the boy from District Three, both tributes from District Four, both tributes from District Six, both tributes from District Nine, the girl from District Ten, and the boy from District Eleven all survived the initial bloodbath. The boy from District Three drowned a few hours later because he fell in a lake and didn't know how to swim.

Most of my friends and I were horrified by the events that unfolded on the TV screen, but my dad just smiled to himself as he watched. "This is what they deserve…" he would occasionally mutter.

Only eleven tributes survived the first day. And after two more days, both of the tributes from District Nine and the girl from District Six all died when they ate poisonous food. The boy from District Four killed the boy from District Eleven on the third by stabbing him through the heart with his sword.

By the fourth day, everybody was running low on supplies and the first Feast was announced. Most of the tributes had no choice but to go to the Feast and another bloodbath ensued. Maribel was killed by the boy from District One and the boy from District Six killed the boy from District Eleven. Jake managed to grab his supplies and he almost escaped before being attacked by the boy from District Four. Jake used his knife to critically wound him before escaping. The bloodbath ended after the girl from District Ten was killed by the boy from District One.

Jake later encountered the boy from District Six and stabbed him in the side with his knife.

That just left Jake, the boy from District One, and the boy from District Four. A series of thunderstorms and tornadoes on the outskirts of the arena forced the remaining three back to the center of the arena. Jake maintained a defensive strategy, while the other two viciously charged. Jake's defensive strategy paid off, because the other two focused on each other.

Due to his injuries, the boy from District Four was unable to put up a very good fight and was eventually killed by the boy from District One. But as soon as the boy from District Four fell to the ground dead and the boy from District One turned around, Jake slit his throat.

President Ravel crowned Jake Victor the next day, and Jake wore a proud smile. The smile was clearly forced, but tears of happiness began to well up in my dad's eyes at the sight. And then he said the words that would change my life and the history of the Hunger Games:

"I want that to be you someday…"

I looked at him in shock, not wanting to believe that what he was saying was true. I ultimately dismissed it at the time; I didn't think he could've been serious. Besides, I didn't see any way that he could increase my odds of not only getting reaped but actually winning. I didn't think there was actually anything he could do to fulfill his dream of seeing me crowned by President Ravel as a Victor.

But I was dead wrong.

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	2. The First Push

"Austin, I'd like you to meet Vernon Lannister," my dad said, introducing me to the large man by his side, "He's been a good friend of mine for quite some time. He proudly fought for the Capitol during the war and was awarded several medals for his bravery." He held out his hand and I shook it, his grip firm and controlling.

Vernon had dark brown hair and a long face. His build was large and he was several inches taller than me. His eyes were a dark green, almost an ivory color, and they seemed to be examining me closely. "I can work with this," he said aloud. At first I thought the comment may have been directed towards me, but the grin on my dad's face told me otherwise.

"What's going on?" I asked my dad, noticing his expression.

"That's great!" my dad exclaimed in response to Vernon, ignoring my question. But Vernon shifted his eyes back and forth from my dad to me, letting my dad know that he was waiting for him to answer my question. My dad seemed to finally remember my existence and turned to face me. But all he said was, "We'll talk about it later."

My dad turned back to Vernon and started talking about something regarding renovations on an old District Two building. But the conversation bored me so I left the two and decided to go for a walk, leaving my dad and Vernon behind and completely unaware of my vacation from the house.

My dad never seemed to understand me very well. He was one of those dads who had a certain image for how he wanted his son to be, but wasn't willing to compromise. Even if I had wanted to try playing an instrument, it didn't matter to my dad; I was going to do sports. Even if I hated running, it was something he forced me to do so I could stay in shape. Even if I didn't care much for politics, my dad made sure I actively supported and defended the Capitol whenever the subject was brought up.

I didn't really like allowing myself to be molded like that, but I was pretty much all my dad had left. My mom died giving birth to me and he had lost nearly all of his friends during the war, so I was okay with doing things that didn't make me happy as long as it made him happy. But sometimes it was feeling like it was going too far. I was disregarding my happiness for his own, but he never really seemed to reciprocate. I couldn't think of one instance when he'd gone out of his way to do something I wanted.

But, I was never going to question or confront him about it. I wasn't very brave or outgoing back then. My dad always said I would've made a great soldier had I been old enough to fight in the war; I always did what I was told and did it to the fullest extent. When I was given a task, even if it was something simple like cleaning the kitchen, I made sure it was done right. I was a bit of a perfectionist.

About an hour later, after going for a run (my dad required me to run at least one hour every day), I returned to my house to find my dad as happy as I had ever seen him. Vernon had left, but my dad had the TV on and looked like he wanted to show me something. "Come sit down, son," he said, "I want to watch this with you."

I sat down on the couch in front of the TV and he pressed the play button. It only took a few seconds to figure out what we were watching: replays from the first Hunger Games. They'd only ended a month ago, but my dad apparently had loved them enough that he needed to see it again, but why did he want me to watch?

The video was condensed so it skipped over some of the more boring stuff and cut to the fighting and the deaths. But it also prominently featured the post-Hunger Games events. The crowning of the Victor, the large amount of praise Jake received for winning. Back then, he was still the talk of the district and people would take detours on their way to work just to see the mansion he received for winning.

The video did kind of have an effect on me. The Victor's Village was awesome and it would be an amazing place to live, and who wouldn't want to be bestowed with a lifetime of honor? The idea of winning the Hunger Games was really beginning to sound like a great idea in my head. I was growing a bit envious of Jake and was imagining myself winning the Hunger Games. I knew something like that would make my dad proud too.

When the video ended, my dad looked at me and said, "Is that something you'd like to do?"

"Win the Hunger Games?" I asked for clarification. My dad nodded.

"Well, yeah," I replied, "It'd be awesome to win! I'm not entirely sure if I could, but who wouldn't want to be in the Victor's position?"

My dad looked at me approvingly, "I think you could have a pretty decent shot."

Ever since my dad introduced me to Vernon, he began talking about the Capitol and the Hunger Games a lot more often. During breakfast and dinner, he'd talk about politics at the table. He'd tell me about what was happening at the Capitol and sometimes recount events from the war: everything the Capitol did right and everything the rebels got wrong. Only being a teenager and not being exposed to any other opinions and voices, I believed almost everything I heard.

Over the next month though, the conversations began to shift focus on the Hunger Games. My dad and I would sometimes do hypotheticals where we'd come up with different strategies for different arenas. It's one of those things that you do for fun. At the time, I never expected to be put in the arena, never thought I'd have to use some of the strategies we came up with; it was a fun thing to ponder.

I learned more about the behind-the-scenes action that occurred during the Hunger Games: the training and evaluations, the fight for sponsors, and the possibility for alliances. And my dad and I would keep talking about the Hunger Games almost every day.

But one day, I said something that seemed to click with my dad. "I think I'd be pretty good in the arena," I said at dinner one night. "I'm athletic, I'm smart, and unlike everybody else I'm sort of prepared for what could happen," I continued, recalling the other conversations my dad and I had had over the past weeks.

"You know," my dad said, "There's a way that you could be even more prepared." My interest piqued at his statement. "If you started training for the Hunger Games and worked for the next ten months, you'd be almost unstoppable by the time the Hunger Games came around."

I'd never completely taken the idea of winning the Hunger Games seriously before, but apparently my dad had. "But that would require me to get reaped too," I said, suddenly unsure if this was what I wanted. "Nonsense!" my dad exclaimed, standing up. He quickly left the room and came back with a book titled "Hunger Games Rules and Regulations".

"You can volunteer," he said, pointing me to the page where I this rule could be found. I read the page and discovered that it was true; I could actually be a part of the Hunger Games if I wanted to.

I was suddenly unsure of what to do. I'd been talking about what it'd be like to fight in the Hunger Games for weeks now, but could I actually be able to do that? Could I actually be able to kill 23 other people?

"You could do if you wanted to," my dad egged me on. He looked at me, awaiting an answer. "Do you want to train for it? Do you want to be a Victor?"

Seeing my dad's face reminded me of all of our past conversations. I could do it. No one else would be prepared, but I would. They'd be taken completely off guard. None of them would have much experience with weapons, but if I trained I would. None of them would be able to deal with the environment if it was too tough, but if I trained I could. This is what I wanted. I wanted to win the Hunger Games. And if I trained, no one would be able to stop me.

So, I slowly raised my head to look at my dad and nodded my head.

"I want to do it."


End file.
